Defining Audiences in the Fast Casual Food category

Using Digital Media to Build Brand Loyalty

In a complex digital marketplace, building brand loyalty requires an understanding of how consumers engage with different platforms. Robert Passikoff of Brand Keys, details a research methodology that can measure how different media and digital devices contribute to building brand loyalty in the salty snack category.
AdMap (11/17)

Loyalty Leaders “Out-innovate” Competition When It Comes to Customer Experience

Baby Boomers to Advertisers: Don't Forget About Us

“While the millennials are sharing stuff, boomers are buying stuff,” Mr. Passikoff said. “If you are a brand, you are in business to make money, and a tweet or share or laugh online doesn’t translate into actual bottom-line dollars.”
By Janet Morrissey, The New York Times. (10/15/17)

Brand Keys report reveals attributes defining loyalty

Digital technology and social networking brands — and brands that facilitate digital tech or social networking — represent more than a third (36 percent) of the 2017 Loyalty Leaders List in the 21st annual survey conducted by Brand Keys. Agility PR. (10/13/17)

Politics redraws brand patriotism

“Politics has made itself more emotionally felt this year than ever, particularly when it comes to how consumers look at brands through a patriotic lens,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys.
warc.com. (07/17)

Brand Keys: Jeep, Levi Strauss and Disney are most patriotic brands

“Politics has made itself more emotionally felt this year, and brands able to make meaningful emotional connections will have a strategic advantage over competitors in terms of winning consumers’ hearts, minds and loyalty.” Passikoff observed. By David Kirkpatrick, marketingdive.com. (6/27/17)

McDonalds and 3 more Illinois companies score high on patriotism

The Values That Drive Car Choice

If an auto brand can identify consumers’ Ideal Automobile, its high-contribution values, and the expectations consumers hold for it, marketers will have a head start in the race for brand engagement. Robert Passikoff of Brand Keys explains how predictive metrics can identify the changing ideals that consumers expect from their car. AdMap. (4/2017)

No Matter How You Slice It, This Is America's Favorite Pizza Brand

The Odds of Winning: Emotional Engagement and the Academy Awards

The concept of emotional engagement is pretty straightforward. Consumers have an “ideal” image of every product and service – including entertainment and experiential events – and particularly, movies. Ultimately, emotional engagement is the yardstick consumers use to measure brands and entertainment. brandingmagazine.com. (2/16/17)

If Trump’s Brand Was a Stock; Buy or Sell?

The Trump business brand has long been synonymous with luxury: High-end hotels , exclusive golf courses, premium vodka, even fine chocolates. Brand Keys has been tracking the value of the Trump Brand for 25 years, focusing on seven categories of the Trump brand: TV and entertainment, golf and country clubs, real estate, suits, ties, dress shirts and jewelry. Robert Passikoff shares some of those insights. By Ray Bogan for Fox Business. (12/28/16)

A Retrospective Look at Brand Trends for 2017

If the title for this 2017 Brand Trends forecast seems a bit contradictory, think about the two biggest questions being raised as we enter the New Year: How did we get here and how did researchers get it so wrong? As market researchers and the media argue, the answer is actually pretty simple. Branding Magazine. (12/7/16)

Has the election season hurt Trump the brand?

In the past if you added the Trump name to any building, its value would have automatically increased, the effect of Donald Trump’s work to create a huge, global brand that includes products, real estate and, most recently, a campaign. But since the GOP nominee announced his candidacy back in 2015, there are signs that his brand has depreciated. Robert Passikoff speaks to PBS Newshour’s Economics correspondent Paul Solman. (11/03/16)

Is Trump Teflon? Most Say No as Brand Perception Takes a Hit

A series of what typical politicians might consider faux pas have catapulted Donald Trump to become the Republican nominee for president, largely bolstering perception of his brand name along the way. But the recent revelation of vulgar comments he made about women may send his brand over the edge, according to a new study by brand research firm Brand Keys.
(10/11/16)

Have Phone Fires Singed Samsung's Reputation or Immolated It?

Could Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 phone explosions blow up the company’s reputation? Samsung began a recall of the 2.5 million phones in early September after an investigation of 35 reports of fire and explosion incidents revealed a battery defect. However, stumbles in communication and execution in coordinating the recall since then has rained criticism on the top-selling Android smartphone maker, which was dealt a new blow when the Federal Aviation Administration recommended flyers not carry the phone on planes.
(9/19/16)

Budweiser calls itself America, but will we buy King of Beers as a patriot?

America is many things to many people. This summer it is a beer. As you stock up on supplies for the holiday weekend, you may notice America on shelves where Budweiser typically sits. The red, white and blue cans still look a lot like Bud despite the temporary name change. The beer itself is no different than it was when branded Budweiser.
(7/1/16)

Why Experts Say Chipotle's Chiptopia Is Not a Loyalty Program

The rewards program comes within weeks of Chipotle’s Q2 2016 earnings announcement and less than a year since its string of norovirus, salmonella, and E. coli outbreaks. Ever since news of the outbreaks hit, Chipotle has taken multiple steps to regain customers’ trust and share of wallet: It implemented new food safety standards; gave away more than six million entrees in Q1 2016, according to the Associated Press; and just announced a new menu item today.
(6/29/16)

Target faces backlash on stance on transgender bathrooms

Two weeks ago, the Minneapolis-based discounter issued a statement that said customers and employees can use the restroom or fitting room that “corresponds to their gender identity.” The move made Target the first major retailer to take such a prominent position on the issue, and won praise from supporters of transgender rights. But Target’s position has also sparked criticism on social media.
(5/4/16)

Keys to emotional engagement

Recently Brand Keys released a report indicating that emotional attachment between brands and their customers is becoming harder and harder to attain. How can brands renew that attachment? Robert Passikoff is answering some of the most-asked questions Brand Keys has received since releasing the study findings.
(3/11/16)

Apple, Nike, Domino’s, Netflix, AT&T and Facebook Hold Engagement Leadership Emotional engagement, a leading-indicator of consumer behavior, sales, and corporate profitability, is now more difficult for brands to achieve as the key drivers of brand engagement have shifted dramatically toward emotional values in the majority of the 72 categories surveyed in Brand Keys’ 2016 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI). This is the 21st annual survey conducted by Brand Keys, the New York-based brand engagement and customer loyalty research consultancy.
(2/22/16)

This year&rsquo;s Brand Keys CLEI results again show a widening gap between what consumers expect from brands and how well they perceive brands to be delivering on those expectations.The particular values or factors that drive consumer engagement with brands within product and services categories change from yearto year. In fact, this year, the drivers changed in 64 of the 72 product and service categories included in the research.
(2/15/16)

Esurance proved that a less expensive pregame Super Bowl ad can actually create morebuzz than an in-game spot, which cost $5 million per 30 seconds. What’s more, the brand chiefly leaned on Twitter – not Facebook – to accomplish its feat.
(2/8/16)

2016 Super Bowl: Just how engagedare viewers?

Chipotle Looks for Fresh Start

It took Chipotle 22 years to transform itself from a burrito stand to a $23 billion brand. The brand did it by meeting customer expectations regarding fresh, locally sourced, customizable food at a good price long before the competition even thought about the phrase, “genetically modified,” let alone positioning their offerings as “fresh” or “customizable.”
(1/22/16)

Deloitte, Brand Keys Find Holiday Digital Engagement Tops 80%

AMTwo new holiday forecasts suggest that in addition to feeling cheery enough to spend more this season, consumers&rsquo; digital devotionwill hit new levels. Deloitte says 82% of those in its survey will research some of their gift purchases online. And 98% of those in BrandKeys&rsquo; research say they will buy something online in the weeks ahead.
(10/28/15)

Apple, Nike, Chipotle Emotionally Engage Millennials

Emotional engagement of the difficult-to-pin Millennial consumer doesn’t directly translate into social networking shares and tweets, according to Brand Keys. By Tanya Gazdik Irwin for Mediapost. (8/4/15)

2 Stunning Finds From a Recent Social Networking Study on Brand Loyalty

Whether you realize it or not, social media use is completely transforming our personal and business interactions on a daily basis. In 2014 an Edison Research study showed that the number of Americans who have a social media profile on a social networking site — such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) or Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) — had jumped from 24% in 2008 to 67% as of 2014.
(4/25/15)

Why your team should review past predictions for accuracy

Many companies talk about predictive metrics and how everything from MRI-driven neuroscience brain flares, keeping tabs ontweets, scoring social shares and listing likes are predictive. That being the case, I think that it is worth reminding readers ofwhat predictive is supposed to mean
(4/20/15)

Would You Have Guessed This Is the Apparel Retailer Consumers Are Most Loyal to?

Americans love shopping for clothes and accessories.How do I know? Because according to data aggregator Statista, the total dollar amount of clothingstore sales in the United States has grown from just $85.4 billion in 1992 to a whopping $178.5billion in 2013. Furthermore, more than 95,000 people are currently employed by the retail industry.
(4/18/15)

Engage Emotionally With Big Event Ads

Big events advertising is expensive and ads need to ensure that they engage with the emotion around the event to get an RoI. And a laugh, a sigh, a tweet, a ‘like’, or sharing of the ad between ‘friends’ aren’t acceptable returns on the time, effort, and money big events require. By Robert Passikoff for Admap. (3/1/15)

Surprise! This is America's Favorite Pizza Brand Once Again

Consumers, according to Brand Keys, demonstrated their best brand loyalty to Domino’s Pizza. This primarily has a lot to do with taste, image, and listening to consumers’ wants and needs. Domino’s Pizza is actually listening to its customers. The company’s mea culpa advertising campaign fessed up that its pizza wasn’t very good and it completely revamped its recipe and menu. The results from that makeover have thus far been incredible. By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool. (2/21/15)Download PDF

Brand Keys: Gap Grows Between What Customers Want and What Brands Deliver

Brand Keys 2015 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index found that the gap between what consumers expect and what brands deliver is bigger and driven almost entirely by emotional values, such as “is this brand for me?” or “does this brand understand me?” By Lisa Lockwood, Women’s Wear Daily.
(2/16/15)

In announcing this partnership, Chris Kneeland, chief executive of Cult Collective in Calgary, said “I’m excited about our Brand Keys partnership because now we have the bullet-proof, statistically-sound research to add science to our art, and make our clients’ brand engagement strategies much more predictive, potent and powerful.” By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald. (10/24/14)

Be More Emotional: How Engagement Assessments Can Make Research More Efficient, Cost-Effective And Insightful

Brand Keys Identifies 10 Least Engaging Brands in 2014

Robert Passikoff reminds brands that brand engagement correlates very highly with positive consumer behavior, sales and profits, and that all you have to do is look and see how the brand is doing in the marketplace to confirm customer assessments. Business & Leadership, by Karina Corbett. (03/10/14)

Hyundai Touts Top Ranking in New Television Commercial

If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Hyundai earned first place in the automobiles category of the 2014 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for the fifth year in a row. The brand is featuring their achievement in their latest TV spot. It seems highlighting this accomplishment works well for Hyundai. They also promoted their top rank five years ago in one of our favorite Hyundai commercials of all time.

The Soul of a Brand

Is Nike A Victim Of Its Own Success?

Stuart Elliott of the New York Times covers Nike’s recent tendency to highlight athletes with personal problems as opposed to athletic prowess. Robert Passikoff offers his insights. By Stuart Elliott, The New York Times. (04/14/13)

About

Brand Keys is a brand research consultancy specializing in predictive brand equity, consumer loyalty and engagement metrics. Our measurement methodology correlates very highly with sales and profitability, making it an accurate means of predicting sales and future in-market behavior.